We will work with you - Minister assures GCNet

The Minister of Communications, Mrs Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, has pledged the support of her ministry to the Ghana Community Network Services Ltd (GCNet) in the implementation of the Total Revenue Integrated Processing Systems (TRIPS) and Ghana’s business automation project.

Both projects are part of the e-Ghana project being supported by the World Bank.

Mrs Owusu-Ekuful said the goal of the Communications Ministry was to address all outstanding issues militating against the e-Ghana project to enhance transparency. 

The minister gave the assurance when she received a delegation from the GCNet, led by its General Manager, Mr Alwin Hoegerle, who paid a courtesy call on her at her office to discuss matters of mutual interest.

The Communications Minister stressed the government’s commitment to the use of technology to facilitate government businesses to ensure that the country improved its business competitiveness and the ease of doing business.

Mrs Owusu-Ekuful underscored the need for all stakeholders to work together to realise the revenue target for 2017 to enable the government to deliver on its promise to build a prosperous, self-reliant and vibrant economy that creates opportunities for all.

GCNet general manager

For his part, Mr Hoegerle briefed the minister about GCNet’s implementation of the e-Registration component of the e-Ghana project in collaboration with the Registrar-General’s Department (RGD).

He said significant progress had been made, including the full automation of business registration processes on the e-Registrar platform, rollout of the e-Registrar to the RGD in Accra, Kumasi, Tamale and Takoradi, provision of public online services via the e-Registrar portal to facilitate name search, name reservation, business registration, regulatory filing, change in particulars, conversions and e-Payments. 

Mr Hoegerle also shared an update on the implementation of the TRIPS project being deployed by GCNet, which he said helped the government to mobilise enormous revenues last year.

Leverage

The Deputy Ministers, Messrs George Andah and Vincent Odotei, Sowah also urged GCNet to work harder to deploy more innovative e-solutions that would facilitate the automation of government machinery to deliver better services to the citizenry.

They noted that GCNet managed a rich database which the government would leverage on in the design of the national identification project. 

The Tema branch and Transit Manager of GCNet, Mr Jimmy Allotey, called for the establishment of revenue courts at the ports as part of measures to address leakages in the revenue mobilisation chain.